Five Habits Every Writer Must Develop

Over the last few years, I’ve consciously made some small changes and additions to my routine to improve my writing and blogging. The advice doled out by established writers and writing blogs helped me, and I hope they prove useful for you too.

1. Writing on a regular basis

Note that I don’t say daily, though that is the standard advice. I find it difficult to make time after or even before a whole day of work. But I came upon several articles on writing websites that advised to find a low target word count, like even 100-200 words and aim for that on a daily basis. I chose 200 words as my target, which means around 1400 words weekly. I get most of my writing done on the weekend, and I did hit this target and more last year.

2. Tracking word count for every writing session

I have been doing this for more than two years now. Many writing websites suggest tracking the start and end time as well as the location, which might help the writer discover the most productive spot and time for writing. However, I have almost the same place and time so I decided not to track this, but it might be useful information for other writers.

3. Establishing a blogging schedule

In years past, every time I sat down to write something for the blog I’d start from scratch. I’d scout topics, research and then write. This used to suck up a lot of time and effort and leave me frustrated. Then I got the idea of creating a schedule, using the posts I usually write and want to write. I planned it and began batching the posts I wanted to publish. This has worked well for me, and if it wasn’t for a weekly reminder and schedule, I’d never blog at all.

4. Social media

I pretty much suck at social media in general, and Twitter in particular. But I have really warmed to Instagram thanks to my newfound love for PicsArt. However, without reminders I would never do that either.

5. Reading everyday

This is a habit that helps me chip away at the TBR pile I’ve accumulated over the years, both on my Kindle and good old-fashioned print books. I also downloaded the Blinkist app and can easily finish off the 15-minute summaries of the best nonfiction books out there. I’m taking a break from Blinkist now, however, and focusing more on the novels I long to read.

All of these habits and more helped me write regularly and improve my writing. As a result, I’m proud to say I have a short story published in Forge today. Check out my story Her Metamorphosis and my author interview as well!

Let me know in the comments below if you liked my story or if any of the tips helped you!